None But The Brave

The courage that was there in this land is there still...the tradition preserved, the landscape stays like a master painting in the recesses of memory, the food teases the palate long after the meal...the feeling of calm that Nagaland offers is something to carry back to the city.

- Stuti Agarwal

The gruffy voice of the pilot announcing our landing in Imphal, Manipur, and the Lohtak Lake for everyone on the right of the aircraft to look out to, woke me up from my fidgety slumber. Nothing could have prepared me for the view outside my window, of topography like I had never seen before—more green than grey—spreading from the hills to the farmlands below, and into the lake, into what looked like small floating islands. And with those rings of green afloat on the lake, I saw the last of my resentment for everyone sitting on the left, who got a view of the Himalaya earlier, swirl away. The arduous task of having to find homes and signs of human existence in the wild expanse, tamed with bits of paddy fields and not-so-permanent settlements, was so beautiful for someone who lives in a labyrinth like Delhi that it Polaroid itself in my head and now works its charm like a long deep breath, calming me immensely and helping me dream of a possible life out of the health code violation of a city.

Called phumdis, the floating islands are not islands at all, but floating masses of vegetation, soil and decomposing organic matter. As if green icebergs, most of phumdis’ mass sits right below the surface of the lake, allowing the living roots to grow down to the lake bed for nutrients during the dry season and come up again for the monsoons. The phumdis are essential for life in the Loktak Lake, 53 km from Imphal, and home to the world’s only floating national park—the Keibul Lamjao National Park. And not only animals, the phumdis are crowded by humans and their homes—schools and a tourist lodge included! I wish I could say I saw any of this up close, stayed in the lodge, walked around barefoot, but alas, the itinerary demanded me to hop right into the cab, onwards to Kohima.